FFVII Vestige of the Past
by Yamamoto Ameko
Summary: Years after Advent Children, an energy pulse is detected far beneath Nibelheim. When investigations discover its source, they find nothing but a little girl, with a tag around her neck that names her as ISO. What was she doing there?
1. Prologue

Chapter One

Slowly, painfully, she opened her eyes. They burned in the light of the Mako bubbling around her, but she forced them not to close. If she closed them, sleep would take her again. She would be forced to return to the flowing stream; to the voice that tortured her there.

It took a moment to pull her head entirely out of slumber. But when she did, she was shocked by her surroundings. Within her tank, everything was bright, but outside the only illumination came from the tank itself. She could see the uneven cavern floor, a jagged wall and short distance to the left, a pool a few feet ahead of her. But of the rest of the cavern, she saw nothing. She had no idea where she was; this most definitely wasn't the laboratory she remembered.

She shifted around slowly, her movements made sluggish by the thick Mako which had kept her suspended in slumber for so very long. A tube jerked sharply out of her arm, and black blood tinted the Mako in her tank. Contamination alarms blared in her ears, startling her. She began to panic. She could barely move in the tiny space, and her own blood was blocking out what low visibility she had in the Mako. She needed to get out.

Painfully, she flexed the muscles in her shoulder. Muscles she had never used. They were not connected to her arm or her back; they controlled a limb unique to people like her. They controlled a limb she had never used before.

Slowly, the singe white wing tore out of her flesh. She wanted to scream in pain, but in the Mako she was not sure if any sound came. The wing stretched out as far is it could, barely six inches behind her. She floated there, wing pulled half way out of her shoulder, blindness slowly falling on her as the hole in her arm continued to bleed. The Mako wouldn't let it clot.

Her heart thundered, her breath rushed. Her skin prickled with cold, and terror made her shiver. So new to life, just woken after almost two decades, and she was going to die.

_No_… His voice reached her, somehow. Reached her even here, outside of the silvery flow. She tried to shriek again, but the pressure in her ears once more stole the sound away. _No, Jenova… you must not die here… Escape. Continue my work. Free Mother… _

She felt it taking her, controlling her limbs. Her arms drifted upwards to either side, tubes and needles tearing out of her flesh. The flow of blood increased, until she was suspended in black liquid she could not breathe. But under his control, it did not worry her. Behind, the white wing crushed itself to the walls, desperate to pack all of its feathery expanse into the tiny space. Still damp, her feathers could not stiffen, could not bare their lethal blades to cut out of the tank. She could feel herself dying, and still he did not release her.

_Father…_ She pleaded, trying to thrash in her distress. But her limbs still were not her own. _Father, you're killing me! Release me, father! _

_No, Jenova.. You can not die today. You will be free. You will kill him… for Mother… _

Her wing stretched out further. Her fingers spread wide, gathering to them the flowing blue-green-silver of the Lifestream. Pushing the light out towards the walls.

The tank burst.


	2. Chapter One

Chapter Two

Cloud didn't need to wake up. He didn't want to wake up. For once, he didn't even _have _to wake up. But clearly, his phone thought that he _should _wake up. And Tifa elbowing him, desperate for him to answer it, really didn't help.

With a low groan, he rolled out from under the covers and sat up, ruffling back his spiky blonde hair. He glanced at the clock, and his head fell into his hands. Six thirty; much to early to be awake on a holiday.

The phone rang again, and Tifa shoved him from behind.

"Pick it up…" She moaned. Cloud didn't even have the energy to glare at her. He just stood up and walked across the room to pick up the phone.

"Hullo?" He said, rubbing blearily at his blue eyes.

Someone laughed on the other end of the line. A door slammed, and there was silence. Cloud blinked. There was only one person it could be.

"Reno?"

"Sorry, Cloud!" Reno's laughter was too lively for so early in the morning, "Got thrown out again!"

"Right…"

"Hey, listen, we've got some weird energy readings from under Nibelheim and-"

"Nibelheim?" Cloud cried, suddenly wide awake. Behind him, Tifa sat bolt upright in bed, her dark eyes wide as they turned on him. That place had been silent for the longest time…

"Yeah, there's something moving around down there. Something big. Y'know, Sephiroth big."

Cloud blinked nervously.

"Anyways, us Turks have been called out, but they wanted one of you SOLDIERs too. Y'know, for security. 'Cause you guys are the only ones who knew what was down there."

"Right…" Cloud muttered. Frowning slightly, he glanced back over his shoulder at Tifa. She looked terrified, "And you immediately thought of me."

"You're the only SOLDIER I know, buddy."

Cloud sighed, reaching up to ruffle the hair at the back of his neck. He didn't really want anything to do with it; life had just settled down again. He and Tifa were to be married soon. More trouble was exactly what he _didn't _need.

He had almost convinced himself that he was going to refuse when he felt his lips moving, almost without his consent.

"Where should I meet you?"

"Nibelheim, naturally!"

Cloud rolled his eyes, "Who'll be there?"

"Rude and I."

"So it's just the three of us?"

"Unless Vincent decides he wants to show afterall." Reno agreed, "Which, y'know, he could do."

"Right…" Cloud sighed again, turning back to Tifa and shrugging, "I guess I'll see you there."

"Great! See ya, Cloud!"

The phone went dead.

He blinked slowly, staring at the buzzing machine in silence. Behind him, the bed groaned as Tifa swung off of it and came to stand at his side. She put one hand on his shoulder, and he tilted his head slightly to look at it.

"Nibelheim?" She whispered. There was a slight quaver to her voice.

"Yeah," He agreed, leaning down to slide the phone back onto its stand. Then he turned and faced her, careful to keep all feeling out of his sky-blue eyes.

"What's wrong?"

"They've picked up some… surges… down where the tanks were." He murmured. Already his eyes were sweeping the room, hunting out what few items he might need on his venture. Chief of them all, the Buster Blade leaned against the wall to his right. Not daring to look into his fiancée's eyes, he strode across the room and hoisted it over his shoulder, "They want SOLDIER with them. And I'm the only one they know."

"But…" Tifa whispered, reaching out to try to stop him. He slipped easily between her fingers.

"I can't just let it go, Teef." Cloud murmured. He paused at the door, one hand resting on the handle, unsure, "What if it's something big… again…"

"I wish someone else would save the world." Tifa breathed.

Cloud nodded his agreement, and then slipped through the door.


End file.
